


Warming up

by ClaraCivry (Kat_Of_Dresden)



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Apologies, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Five and Lila talking and being.... cool with each other, Five needs some love, Gen, Hurt Number Five | The Boy, Hypothermia, Lila is great, Number Five | The Boy Whump, Talking About Trauma, Trapped in a Freezer, just a little mo tho, mention of suicidal ideation in a way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:28:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29094231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kat_Of_Dresden/pseuds/ClaraCivry
Summary: Lila and Five trapped and about to freeze!A-N-G-S-T-T-T!aka Five and Lila have a chat while trapped in a freezer. Five is injured, Lila is conflicted.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & Lila Pitts
Comments: 10
Kudos: 148





	Warming up

It was so fucking cold, she could hardly even think.

No matter how much she screamed, no matter how much she kicked the door, there was no one coming, and she was getting very very cold. Had she been trained for this? What to do when trapped in a walk in freezer with a bunch dead cow meat laying around. Surely it had been part of her unique education. She had just wanted to forget all.

But the fuck was that she was pissed, because this dude, whoever he was, had put her here to lure out the Handler, who was dead and thus not coming, possibly wouldn't have come to save her even when she was alive if she had no use for her, if she'd found another little kid whose life she could ruin.

So yeah, she was trapped, and really really pissed. So pissed that she hadn't even realised that she wasn't alone in the freezer.

"Stop.... screaming." a vaguely familiar voice said behind her. "... my head."

Oh, so to be even more certain that he would get the attention of his dead former kind of mother, this dude had kidnapped Five too. Well, he may not be her favourite person in the world, but it could be good news. It could mean that they had a way out of here, in the mere blink of an eye.

"Five, what? Why are you here, why haven't you left?"

Five put his (bloodied) fists in front of him and little sparks of blue light appeared, and disappeared again in a second.

"Can't do more. My head."

There was a big blow on the left side of his forehead and all the left side on not just his face, but his neck and shoulder too were covered in blood. His eyes were out of focus, dazed, and he seemed... Well, really out of it.

"Well, try harder! Before we freeze to death."

His schoolboy sweater and shirt were drenched in blood too, she noticed. Ugh, he'd probably put up a fight before getting snatched - which meant he wouldn't be able to manage to jump, and if he couldn't then she couldn't either. Fuck!

"Drugs. I... me... injection... in neck... I can't... I want... no..."

She looked at Five, really looked at him for the first time. He looked like hell, all covered in blood, rail-thin like he was, uniform all messed up and holed up, eyes all unfocused and bright, and where his irises different sizes? Someone had messed him up real good.

Kneeling closer, she saw that yes, there was in his neck what looked like some injection point, so this idiot had also drugged him apart from beating the shit out of him. Great, their best hope at getting out and he was.... _out of commission_ (finger guns) (she really should spend less time with Klaus she was starting to think with his awful sense of humour).

Five kept trying to conjure the blue lights, but was getting nowhere, now not even able to get sparks, just looking at his hands with a tinge of desperation.

"Stop." Lila said. "You should probably try to gather some energy."

Five did stop, with no mean looks at her order (which was fairly concerning on itself) and let his head fall back on the wall of the freezer. Probably not a great idea either.

Lila didn't know how she was supposed to feel. This was the man that she'd been meaning to kill for the longest time, her target, the one person that she would end to finally exact her revenge... It was his death that was going to make everything better, his death that would make her feel that her family could rest in peace.

If only it'd been that easy. He had to point out that the Handler had been using her, had to point out that she'd been stolen, that she was the reason why everything had happened. And she knew it wasn't her fault. But it wasn't his, either - he'd been just a middle-man, a means to an end, and if it wouldn't have been him it would have been someone else. There had been no intentionality behind that. (All the intentionality had been from that woman she'd considered her mother - who'd stolen and used her, just like she'd used this poor old man/kid)

But he'd put a lot of intentionality into saving the world, into saving his family. He'd put himself in the line of fire, over and over again, he hadn't shied away from fighting with her, he'd laid out the facts in front of her so she could hear. So he'd been turned into a killer by someone who had taken him in when at a vulnerable moment. Hadn't she too? The same someone, but even getting paid?

"At least maybe the others are looking for you." she said. That could be a way out as well.

She sat next to him, tired of standing, hoping that putting her leg on her chest would offer some warmth. Yeah, maybe the Hargreeves would suddenly appear, Luther or Vanya could destroy that door in an instant, and...

Five just scoffed at the notion of being saved by his siblings.

"... f'r... me?.... no..."

"Why wouldn't they come for you? I mean, sure, what I've seen is mostly you going to get them, but I'm sure they'll be worried, you know. You are one of them."

Five just shook his head, as he shivered, his teeth chattering. Damn, how much longer than her had he been in there?

"Don't care. N't.... not me."

Five's eyes closed, his head falling to the side, to his shoulder.

"Five?"

Shit. She may have once upon a time wanted this very badly, but now, NOW, she didn't want Five to die. Part of her had kind of warmed up (really? now? WARM up?) to him, but mostly it was because she knew that Diego would be heartbroken, and a sad Diego in general was almost too much to bear, she couldn't imagine what a I-just-lost-my-brother Diego could be.

She slapped his cheeks, hoping for some reaction. His skin was really fucking cold.

"Don't do this now, you little maniac, don't you dare die on me!"

It took a while (a minute? Two? Thirty seconds? time seemed to pass differently when you were freezing), but finally those big eyes opened again, albeit even more unfocused than before.

"What... where?"

She'd heard about both blows to the head and hypothermia causing confusion and memory loss, add to that some unspecified drugs, Five must be going through the trip of a lifetime.

"You know who I am?" sha asked. "Some... wanker has trapped us in this freezer, hoping to lure the Handler out. Any of this sound familiar?"

".... my.... family?"

"They're not here, I'm hoping that they're looking for us."

There was a slight expression of relief, and then pain.

"Feel sick."

"Yeah, no wonder, you probably have a concussion." she sighed. Not only was Five not a big help to get out, but he was becoming a concern. "Try not to die, aight? I don't want to have to explain myself to Diego."

Five drew a little smile at the mention of his brother.

"...n't... great'st... thinker.... but... you love him."

Lila smiled back. It was a nice way to put it, yeah. You did love him. HUh, who knew that Five had feelings? Now they were both shivering like like crazy, they needed to get out right about now.

"I'm going to go see if there's any action in the outside that I can hear, all right? STAY AWAKE."

There was no sound of life on the other side of the door. Lila tried calling the man, trying to reason with him, offering a deal. She tried to conjure the power of anyone that may be around there, but got nothing, not even little blue sparks from Five, who, when she came back, looked like he was barely even in the world of the living.

Must be the concussion + drugs + hypothermia combo. None of them good for the head.

"Five? Do you see me? Do you remember who I am?"

"Lila" well, that was good. "Lila... d'ya think... I should... let m'self die in th'apocalypse?"

That was not so good. What was she supposed to say to that? Why was he asking her (because of drugs, most probably, but)?

"I mean my parents would have died anyway, just on someone else's hands. "

This was all she could think of, but it didn't seem enough to change his mind.

"I wouldn't have met Diego without you. Maybe wouldn't have learnt the truth about the Handler. As much as I hated you, you've been good to me. So, if you're asking me, no, I don't think you should have let yourself die in the apocalypse."

She was losing him and her hands and feet were becoming a bit too cold. Five's eyes were closing again.

"It was cruel, you know?" she said, and he frowned. "If she was going to use you anyways, the Handler, that she left you suffering all those years on your own, going crazy, nearly starving. Just like it was cruel, robbing me of my parents, isolating me from the world. Like you were, isolated."

"Funny things... to the head. Am st'll... not... all here."

"Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, I can't. Fourty five years? That's so much. And she saw it and it's just.... I never thought we would have anything in common, you know? You were an old man who killed my parents, I was some lady that was trying to take advantage of your brother and then kill you. But we were both victims. Taken advantage of at our most vulnerable, having our will completely warped, being made into killers... I actually have more in common with you than... anyone else I can think of."

There was a silence, their breathing being the only sound.

"Stii-illl... I'm sorry. Y'r parents. Surely.... were good people." Five managed to say, through the chatter of his teeth.

Lila wanted to cry.

"So were you."

*

Diego had never thought he would live to see this day.

Lila was embracing Five, had his head in her chest, was trying to cover all of him, holding him tight. He remembered what he knew about preserving body heat, and yeah it made sense that they would do that not to lose extremities, and keep what little body heat they had, but still.

It would have been cute if it wasn't a life or death situation (but wasn't all their life on of those?)

"Be careful with his head." Lila said, looking markedly worried about Five, who was indeed very bloodied and now being taken by Luther. "He stopped shiviering a few minutes ago. Whatever you do, you need to do it NOW"

Allison rumoured an ambulance to come and take them to the mansion. Since not everyone fit in, Diego and Lila stayed behind, while Luther looked for a car.

Diego was.... surprised, to say the least, at Lila's worry for his brother.

"You okay?" he asked, and her nod, could help wondering, "you've gone soft on the old man?"

"I don't know. Maybe if there had been more softness in his life he wouldn't have become... that. I just, I realised some things. And I'm kind of hoping he'll be all right."

Good. The less people wanting to kill Five in their family, the better.

"He may not be the nicest guy.... but you love him." he said, and Lila laughed.

"You guys are definitely brothers."

"Should I be offended by that? I feel like I should."

*

He was going to need weeks, entire weeks of rest to get back on his feet, acording to Grace. Although his head had been the worst, Five'd had injuries all over his body, and was now all bandaged and propped up in pillows.

Sitting up, but all surrounded by softness. And warmth.

"Hey there, freezer-buddy." she said, trying to sound casual. She'd wanted to see how he was doing, trying to get that "unconscious-and-not-even-shivering-but-still-covered-in-blood" image of him out of her head, but now she felt awkward.

Five just gave an acknowledgement nod. Lila asked:

"Do you remember anything?"

"It's a bit blurry. I know you were there, and there's.... bits of conversation."

"You apologized. For my parents."

"Oh."

"And I realized I have to apologize too."

There was a confused expression in Five's face.

"That frying pan. Your poor little head has been through so much already... It didn't need my exemplary aimed kitchenware."

Five didn't laugh, but he smiled. It was something. Lila never thought she would be glad to see this annoying little bastard smile, and yet... She sighed.

"And, even though it has nothing to do with me, I'm sorry about the handler, and what she did to you."

"Right back at you."

And no, Diego was not crying from the doorway at the genuine exchange of feelings and the fact those two now cared about each other, and were helping each other with shared trauma.

He was not crying at all.

It was just very wet in that hallway.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Did you enjoy? 
> 
> Certainly hope you did! Lila and Five should be friends and I want them to be friends ughh
> 
> If you liked, you know you want to comment!


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